Glossary
What is Kanban? Definition, origin and practice
Kanban makes work visible and limits how much runs at once. Definition, its origin in manufacturing, and what it changes day to day.
Kanban is a method for making work visible and deliberately limiting how much of it runs at once. It prescribes no roles, no ceremonies and no fixed cadence: there are columns for the stations your work passes through, cards for the tasks, and a cap on how much may be in flight at any time.
Where the term comes from
„Kanban“ is Japanese for „signal card“ and comes from Toyota's production system. There the card was a physical signal: new supply could only be requested once a slot had freed up. Applied to knowledge work that means new work does not start because someone has time, but because capacity opened up further down the line.
What it actually changes
The effective part is not the board, it is the limit. A board without a WIP limit is a prettier to-do list: everything is visible and fifteen things still sit in „in progress“ at once. Only the cap forces the uncomfortable question of what has to finish before anything new begins.
The second effect is measurable rather than felt: with less running in parallel, cycle time drops — the time from „started“ to „done“. That is the number Kanban cares about, not how many tasks someone touches per week.
Kanban and Scrum
Kanban needs no sprint and no fixed iteration. That is precisely the difference: Scrum plans in timeboxes, Kanban steers flow. Teams with unpredictable intake — support, operations, agencies — usually do better with Kanban, because a two-week plan gets overturned daily there anyway.
In Zuuna
Every board in Zuuna starts as a Kanban board: columns, cards, drag and drop. Sprints, story points and burndown are extra layers you can switch on but do not have to — a team that only wants to steer flow never touches them.
Related terms
The hybrid of Kanban and Scrum has its own name: Scrumban.
FAQ
Does Kanban require fixed roles?
No. Kanban prescribes neither a product owner nor a scrum master. It describes how work flows, not who holds which role — that is the main difference from Scrum.
How many columns should a Kanban board have?
As many as your work has real stations — usually three to five. Any column that is just a holding area lengthens cycle time without making anything visible.
Does Kanban work for one person?
Yes, but the payoff is smaller. The core is limiting parallel work, and that mostly hurts where several people block one another.